All 8 'Murderbot' Books, Ranked According to Goodreads

Image via Apple TV Published Sep 13, 2026, 5:42 PM EDT Erin is a Books & Literature Writer for Collider. She received her MA in English at LSU New Orleans, where she specialized in Disability Studies and maximized her Gothic literature obsession. She once aspired to be a ghost hunter, but has now settled into the writer’s life. A Pushcart-nominated poet and proud Piscean, if she’s not feverishly writing, you can find her stress baking, swimming, and adding to her tarot card deck collection. Sign in to your Collider account Told from the first-person perspective of a self-hacked, socially awkward SecUnit (Security Unit), Martha Wells’ The Murderbot Diaries is a uniquely compelling and humorous standout in the far-future sci-fi landscape. Recently brought to life in Apple TV’s adaptation, Murderbot, by the ever-versatile Alexander Skarsgård, this cyborg protagonist is one for the books. With a second season of Murderbot on the horizon, it's as good a time as any to trek through the award-winning source material. Martha Wells' eight-book series is composed of both novels and novellas. Each entry sustains a very similar score on Goodreads. In fact, not one of The Murderbot Diaries books falls below four out of five stars. Bottom line: the series as a whole is truly solid, uniform, and worth reading from start to finish. If Goodreads rankings alone aren't enough to sway you, the series has accumulated many prestigious literary recognitions in science fiction, including a Hugo Award, a Nebula Award, and a Locus Award. All Systems Red was also a 2017 finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award. 8 'All Systems Red' Book 1 Image via Macmillan Surprisingly, book one of The Murderbot Diaries has the lowest score, albeit marginally. This first novella is the most widely read and reviewed of the series, with over 400,000 ratings on Goodreads. Being exposed to a much larger group of readers, it's understandable that Murderbot's narration just wasn't everyone's cup of tea. After all, Wells fully commits to Murderbot's isolated, apathetic, sometimes dreary POV. Some readers complained that the characters, scenery, and plot felt too flat or simplistic, but that is part of this story's purposeful design and scope. Murderbot is not invested in the world and other humans' feelings in the way a typical protagonist would be. He really just wants to watch his beloved soap opera, "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon," and be left alone. The internal monologue is not flowery, so don't expect extravagant prose, and Wells doesn't waste time jumping right into the central action. With little exposition about this far-future interplanetary geography, Wells' worldbuilding is a little more on the fly, providing context as needed, but not overloading readers with information. 7 'Platform Decay' Book 8 Image via Macmillan Platform Decay is the latest book in the series, but reportedly not the last, as Wells' publishing contract entails at least one more release. Book eight prompts reflection on the long emotional maturity arc Murderbot has been on since hacking its governor module and gaining autonomy at the outset of the series. Now, with a recently installed mental health module that does "emotion checks," Murderbot takes on yet another rescue mission, but with this new layer filtering his interactions with humans, including human children. Wells also introduces a brand-new cast of characters in this entry, which were pretty hit or miss, especially for readers expecting a certain narrative style and series regulars seven books in. Many reviewers attributed Platform Decay's middling impact to filler episode energy. It's not a bad read, by any means, but it doesn't push the larger narrative forward. By pressing pause and deferring back to an extraction mission plotline that feels like a remix of previous installments' action points, Platform Decay has a hard time distinguishing itself from the pack. 6 'Rogue Protocol' Book 3 Image via Macmillan The third book in The Murderbot Diaries places everyone’s favorite grumpy SecUnit in the familiar formula of a corporate mission gone sideways, but also begins widening the series' scope beyond the immediate relationship between Murderbot and the humans it protects, including its legal owner, Dr. Mensah. Murderbot is especially perturbed upon encountering Miki, a rather childlike human-form bot, who has a shared sense of friendship with its human owner, Don Abene. An action-packed novella with a memorable finale, Rogue Protocol explores Murderbot’s reevaluation of relationships with humans and AIs alike as it continues to develop its own moral compass. The series’ wider themes of personhood, guardianship, exploitation, and autonomy really start to take off here, as Murderbot charts its own self-discovery journey, fashioning itself as neither a piece of human property, a tool, nor a pet. 5 'Artificial Condition' Book 2 Image via Macmillan Artificial Condition is an early highlight in Wells’ series. The second novella approaches Murderbot's quasi-freedom to exist outside the immediate orbit of annoying humans! Determined to investigate the events of the half-remembered massacre that spawned his self-appointed name, Murderbot goes undercover and assumes a new identity while traveling with ART, a Machine Intelligence research transport ship. Thus begins an unexpected and endearing partnership, as the two banter and bond over watching soap operas. ART is, funny enough, a chiding acronym for “A**hole Research Transport” — a Murderbot-approved nickname for the bot-pilot that underscores one of the series' most enjoyable character pairings. The plot of Artificial Condition gives Wells plenty of room to play with the protagonist's increasingly contradictory, “detached” personality, and the result is a thoroughly satisfying sequel. 4 'System Collapse' Book 7 Image via Macmillan An immediate follow-up to Network Effect and the second full-length novel in the series, System Collapse is another action-packed entry, but with a distinctly traumatized Murderbot. PTSD is no joke! By this point in the series, Murderbot has been through a lot, and it’s honestly not surprising that they're struggling to operate at peak performance. Panic attacks, forgetfulness, and processing glitches open the door to some tumultuous character development territory for poor Murderbot. In System Collapse, Wells notably met the fan base’s demands by finally having an ART and Murderbot reunion. The book retains the signature humor that makes the series so fun to read, while keeping the stakes high for Murderbot and the humans from Preservation Alliance, as they stand against the Barish-Estranza corporation’s predatory actions on a newly colonized planet. 3 'Fugitive Telemetry' Book 6 Image via Macmillan Book six returns to the novella structure, and also jumps backward in The Murderbot Diaries timeline. A bit confusing to place at first, the events of Fugitive Telemetry happen between the events of books four and five. As for the plot, this entry puts Murderbot at the center of a murder investigation on Preservation Station, the home of Dr. Mensah and her group of space hippies. Despite the confusing time jump, Fugitive Telemetry is very well-received by fans as a standalone adventure, well-paced and helpful in providing some more insight into what life is like in Preservation Alliance. Although it stands apart from the all-for-profit Corporate Rim, where Murderbot was essentially enslaved, Preservation is still a place of prejudices and entrenched mistrust toward SecUnits like itself. Altogether, this fun, twisty side quest fuses a locked-room mystery with its sci-fi staples, turning this snarky cyborg into a detective. Though all Murderbot wants to do is "watch media and not exist." 2 'Exit Strategy Book 4 Image via Macmillan The fourth novella is a sort of homecoming for Murderbot, who, after much intergalactic travel, comes back to save Dr. Mensah, who has been kidnapped by the GrayCris Corporation. GrayCris is the foe that endangered the Preservation survey team at the start of the series, giving Murderbot a chance to reckon with the corporation that started it all. Some of Dr. Mensah’s close colleagues, including Pin-Lee, Ratthi, and Gurathin, take on a more prominent role in Exit Strategy. The close-to-home rescue mission amplifies Murderbot's reluctant heroics, and its rogue security unit identity continues to be upended by very real loyalties, friendships, and (gasp!) feelings. In all, Exit Strategy is Wells at her most efficient and profound. The novella provides a nice full-circle ending that could very well have topped off the series, but lucky for fans, an even finer full-length novel was written in the stars. 1 'Network Effect' Book 5 Image via Macmillan Finally, with the highest Goodreads ranking in the series is book five, Network Effect, the first full-length novel in the series. Upping the stakes, expanding the cast, and honing the planetary worldbuilding, Network Effect takes The Murderbot Diaries to new heights rather than stretching out the existing novella format that had defined the series. Network Effect has all the key ingredients in the Murderbot plot stew: more people to protect (particularly Dr. Mensah’s daughter, Amena), more dangerous corporate agendas to unravel, more uncomfortable relationships to navigate, and more opportunities to complain about all of the above. Oh, the ART/Murderbot duo are back together again, and it makes for an emotional rollercoaster. A fan favorite for many and a joy to reread, Network Effect is the series at its most well-rounded soft sci-fi brilliance, invoking an unforgettable (inter)stellar found family trope that won readers over. Release Date May 15, 2025 Network Apple TV+ Showrunner Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz Directors Aurora Guerrero, Roseanne Liang Writers Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz Franchise(s) The Murderbot Diaries